The NYCFC coach, in his first season with the second-year MLS club, makes decisions like a coach with the kind of job security and cachet that Bill Belichick has with the Patriots, whom he’s led to six Super Bowls.

The centerpiece to the autonomous way Vieira operates is the bold end-of-the-season move he made to bench his incumbent goalkeeper, Josh Saunders, in favor of Eirik Johansen, who never had played a league game.

Vieira, answering to no one but himself, made a move that was as admirable as it was arrogant. And, through two games entering Sunday’s match against Toronto FC in the second leg of the Eastern Conference semifinals at Yankee Stadium, it has worked.

Sort of.

With no one from the outside seeing it coming, for NYCFC’s final regular-season match against Columbus, Vieira benched the 35-year-old Saunders, who had started all 33 games to that point and 33 of 34 in 2015, and replaced him with Johansen, a 24-year-old MLS rookie with no game experience.

The Columbus game, by the way, was not a garbage-time match. NYCFC needed a positive result to secure the No. 2 seed in the playoffs, a bye and home-field advantage … and it won, 4-1.

Now, however, after a 2-0 loss at Toronto last Sunday, NYCFC is in a deep hole in the two-game aggregate series.

Still, though, Johansen is expected to start again, though Vieira — channeling his inner Bill Belichick — refused to acknowledge such during the week.

Vieira, in fact, danced around divulging his reasoning behind making the goalkeeping change, though conventional wisdom would tell you that he likes Johansen’s upside more than that of Saunders (who declined to be interviewed for this story).

“Regarding the goalkeeping situation, I don’t want to focus on that, because it was a decision that was a tough one,’’ Vieira said. “I made a decision and I stuck by my decision.

“Sometimes I get it right and sometimes I don’t. This is my job. I have to make a decision, and you guys [reporters] will have to question it and I respect that because that’s part of your job.

“Of course, not everyone will like it, even you. You don’t like it,’’ Vieira said after some mild peppering on the subject.

The fact is, though, I don’t have a problem with the move.

Vieira, a former star player from France, knows a lot more about the sport and his players than I do. So if what he sees in Johansen is better than what he sees in Saunders, who had not had a poor season, allowing 1.7 goals per match while posting eight shutouts, so be it.

“From day one, coach Vieira hasn’t hesitated to make it clear that the success of the club is what comes first,’’ NYCFC defender Jason Hernandez said.

“He’s not afraid to make a bold move with anyone,’’ midfielder Frank Lampard said. “He played like that and he’s a manager like that.’’

Vieira served as Manchester City’s reserve team manager in 2015 before taking the NYCFC job.Photo: Getty Images

NYCFC midfielder Thomas McNamara said he “wasn’t surprised” by Vieira’s goalkeeping switch because “nobody’s given anything, nobody’s given a starting spot for the entire year. You need to earn it.’’

Obviously, in Vieira’s eyes, Johansen earned it in training sessions.

“It’s really hard to be patient when all you want to do is play games, but I’ve done the best I could at staying patient,’’ Johansen told The Post. “I’ve just been trying to work as hard as possible to be ready for the time I was called upon. When you haven’t played many games it’s easy to get a bit edgy, a bit nervous trying to do too much with what you’re given.

“But I was ready. I was confident for it.’’

After the Columbus match, though, Johansen conceded he was “uncertain’’ whether he would get the tap for the playoffs.

“I feel like I put in a good shift, so I made my chances significantly better, of course, but I wasn’t sure,’’ he said. “Josh has played almost two full seasons. From his point of view, I kind of feel for him. I’m sure he wanted to play that Toronto game.’’

By virtue of the late goalie switch, Johansen learned something about Vieira.

“With Patrick, he has the eyes for bold moves,’’ Johansen, a native of Norway, said. “He’s not afraid to make them.

Obviously, sometimes they pay off, sometimes they don’t. From the experience he has in the game, they’re going to pan out more often than not.’’